Speaking

A leading author, journalist and business consultants on how to stay relevant and vibrant in today's business world.

Speech Topics

Talent, Resilience and ‘The Rare Find’

This talk distills the key findings from George’s book, The Rare Find, into a series of principles that can help leaders in any field sort out their people puzzles more effectively. Key examples come from entities as diverse as Google, Johns Hopkins Medicine and Army Special Forces. You will see how seven traits – resilience, efficiency, judgment, compatibility, self-reliance, acumen and desire to learn – repeatedly emerge as the most valuable markers of future success. You will find out why less successful organizations place too much emphasis on traditional resume badges that have dwindling significance in our fast-changing economy. And you will explore the types of situations where “jagged resume” candidates can end up being some of your best hires.

Building an Innovation Culture

How can your organization get better at inventing the future – instead of just reacting to it? How can you transform your product pipeline and your business culture so that new ideas thrive? This talk spells out four powerful ways that mainstream companies can adopt the best of Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial methods. You will learn how to develop customer-centered goals, how to make disruption appealing, how to experiment safely, and how to hire for transformation.

Talent Strategies for a Networked World

The rise of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the like is both a blessing and a curse. It’s never been so easy to pool insights, expertise and data. We’ve also never had to deal with so much clutter before. This talk explains how to harness social media’s strengths – particularly in identifying and managing talent – without being overwhelmed by the perils of hyper-connectivity. I will show you how to analyze your own “social graph,” so you can pinpoint valuable connections that you may not even realize. Join me for a survey of best current practices – and a look into the ways that social networking will transform talent-spotting even further in the next five years.